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Daly, Andrew

A Compositional Investigation into Style and Genre Fusion Utilising Popular Electronic and Alternative

Original Citation

Daly, Andrew (2017) A Compositional Investigation into Style and Genre Fusion Utilising Popular Electronic and Music. Masters thesis, University of Huddersfield.

This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/34427/

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A COMPOSITIONAL INVESTIGATION INTO STYLE AND GENRE FUSION UTILISING POPULAR ELECTRONIC AND ALTERNATIVE ROCK MUSIC

ANDREW DALY

A thesis and portfolio submitted to the University of Huddersfield in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts by Research for Music

The University of Huddersfield

March 2017

1. Introduction 3 2. Methodology 7

3. Drum ‘n’ 9 3.1 Features 9 3.2 Word Cloud 11 3.3 Analysis of Timeless and Feel the Love 12 3.4 Blue in Grey and Electric Priest 12

4. Alternative Rock 15 4.1 Features 15 4.2 Word Cloud 17 4.3 Analysis of Stockholm Syndrome 18 4.4 Pray Charge Your Glasses 18

5. Fusion Compositions 20 5.1 Table of Elements 21 5.2 Thistles 22 5.3 Minotaur 23 5.4 Last Exchange 24

6. Discussion 25 7. Conclusion 27

8. Lyrics 29 8.1 Pray Charge Your Glasses 29 8.2 Thistles 29 8.3 Last Exchange 30

9. Bibliography 31 10. Discography 33 11. Copyright statement 33

Portfolio Tracks (On accompanying USB) 1. Blue in Grey (Drum ‘n’ Bass experiment 1) 2. Electric Priest (Drum ‘n’ Bass experiment 2) 3. Pray Charge Your Glasses (Alternative Rock experiment) 4. Thistles (Fusion 1) 5. Minotaur (Fusion 2) 6. Last Exchange (Fusion 3) Word Count: 10900

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A Compositional Investigation into Style and Genre Fusion Utilising Popular Electronic and Alternative Rock Music

1. Introduction

The purpose of this study is to find out the limitations of style and genre fusion. It asks how effectively can a composer achieve this? This thesis explores the restrictions of the ideas of style and genre fusion by examining if one genre will overpower the other in terms of its sonic signature and social ideals or if a balanced fusion can be achieved? Another question of interest, is how far apart can two fusions by the same composer of the same two genres stylistically be from one another? The study consists of a portfolio of compositions that explore the subject and this accompanying thesis will discuss the research that informed them as well as some discussion of the compositions themselves.

This study will explore the genres of drum ‘n’ bass and alternative rock. These are the genres I spent most of my adolescence listening to, and in the case of alternative rock, playing in bands. Once literate with digital audio workstations (DAW) in my late teenage years, I began to dissect and attempt to recreate the sounds and ideals of drum ‘n’ bass, ushering in a new style of composition for myself. I began utilising the harmonic language, form elements and some instrumentation from alternative rock and the production ideals, rhythm elements and sound design from drum ‘n’ bass to create my new sonic signature. It is this reason that I have chosen these two genres as the basis for this investigation.

Previous compositions of mine such as Silicon Memoirs (Daly, 2015) have explored issues of style and genre. The musical elements that make up that come from a variety of influences across many genres and styles, and it is this cross pollination of musical style in not just my own, but all music that I find intriguing. Artists will have a certain sonic signature drawn from a variety of influences, both musical and non musical, but may not necessarily conform to all of the ‘rules’ of a genre; yet will be labelled as for example a artist or a folk artist for ease of recognition and resale in the age of commercialisation of music.

While some artists do indeed present a public image that supports their genre classification, such as Daft Punk with their robotic front that inherently suits their role in electronic culture, some artists do recognise that an ambiguity of genre for them is indeed their identity and thus their marketing strategy. Though not an exclusive act in this idea of genre fusion, Gorillaz are one of the more prominent artists of recent times to employ such tactics. I analysed a video essay entitled Gorillaz – Deconstructing Genre (kaptainkristian, 2016) and it shows us that artists need not constrain themselves to particular traits musically and socially just to fit into a box of assigned facets for a genre. Gorillaz are able to do just that by presenting a false front of the band to the public, an animated quartet of individuals who in reality do not make the music, but rather embody it. The animated nature of the band allows the masterminds behind the scenes to work without constraints of human image and can constantly evolve the caricature they have created, unbound by style or genre.

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Dissecting the influences and traits of music is an intriguing but complicated matter and also one that raises certain questions. With this in mind, I ask the question of how a genre is defined and if a musical entity takes elements from more than one genre and fuses them, are they creating a new genre? Genre definition is an issue that has been tackled in the past and this study will borrow heavily from Franco Fabbri’s definitions of how genre classification works.

Firstly we must draw out the differences between genre and style. There are varying opinions on how these two terms are defined: -

‘In most musicological literature which has tackled the problem of genres, from positivists to very recent examples, the formal and technical rules seem to be the only ones taken into consideration, to the point where genre, style and form become synonymous.’ (Fabbri, 1981)

There are, however, a few pieces of literature dedicated to drawing out the differences with varying opinions on the matter. Fabbri (1981) then goes on to state that a genre consists of ‘a set of musical events (real or possible) whose course is governed by a definite set of socially accepted rules’. This is something that is also discussed by Tagg (2011) and implies that musicological factors alone, what we have come to understand as style, cannot define a genre in its entirety without some sociological factors. Fabbri states that these rules will fit into one or more of five categories, which I have in turn placed into two sections, musicological and non-musicological. I define the musicological rules as those that apply directly to the musical content, but may yet be influenced by non-musicological content. They consist of two of the five categories.

The first is formal and technical rules. These rules consist principally of some kind of written or oral code/tradition in the way a musical element must be treated within the architecture of the genre. An example might be how the same instrument would be played in different manners within two different genres, such as a trumpeter in a band versus one who plays in an orchestra. The mechanics of playing are the same but the manner and performance techniques are different. This also covers the formats of how the music is transferred and taught, for example manuscript, tablature or oral tradition.

The second category is semiotic rules. Normally I would define these as the iconic, symbolic and indexical relationships (Tagg, 2011) between the musical events and the space they are played in. This is contentious though as Fabbri (1981) explains: -

“Of course all the rules of genre are semiotic, since they are codes which create a relation between the expression of a musical event and its content.”

Naturally this doesn’t help us classify, so this set of rules will be narrowed down from all aspects to just those of the musical event, including text, and the resulting emotional value that is instilled. The issue with generalizing this way is that there are indeed many other factors outside of this affecting the communicative state of the musical events. These include how the musical event is listened to and its social environments. Accepting all aspects that affect the communicative features of a musical event as

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semiotic does not help us to classify non-musicological events, thus they will be treated separately. We will therefore be accepting the musical event’s referential, emotional, imperative, phatic, metalinguistic, narrative and poetic values as semiotic.

Non-musicological rules are those that do not apply directly to the musical content, yet may still be influenced by it. These consist of the three remaining categories.

Behaviour rules are essentially the measurable reaction of all parties involved. This includes the behavioral facets of musicians and their performativity aspects, including the genuineness of those actions. For example, how a guitarist would behave differently in either a rock/metal band against a jazz band, such as the onstage antics of Iron Maiden against those of Martin Taylor. The behaviour rules of an audience or the recipient of the music I would argue are part of the next set of rules.

Social and ideological rules are a huge factor in genre definition and probably the largest category of the three non-musicological. How audiences interact with the artists and each other in the presence of musical events and also other cultural aspects tied to the ideology of the musical events are paramount. An example might be the social expectations of behavior and traditional social status of the audience at a of classical music or an opera, compared to that of an (Redhead, 1998). Aspects such as fashion and the ideologies associated with the resulting social movement accompanying the music are prevalent in the defining process as well. Punk music is an example of this, as Malcolm McLaren created the image and attitude of the Sex Pistols, who in turn under his management sparked a new wave of music and social behaviors (Law, 2016). These rules also classify aspects of the artist’s demographics such as gender and age issues in different musical line-ups.

Finally we have, economical and juridical rules. Perhaps the most difficult to codify, these rules govern the financial and legal expectations as well as ‘behind the scenes’ aspects of the genre in question. This also means they are not easily accessible for codification due to their undisclosed nature. An example might be how a certain type of musical act would choose to price and distribute tickets and all of the accompanying inner workings for an event or tour.

While there are those who disagree with the way in which genre and style are defined (Moore, 1998), for the purposes of this thesis, style is the musicological content and all aspects that feed into that. Genre will refer to that which incorporates style but also includes the larger social and other non-musicological factors from all of the five sets of rules. Style can indeed vary widely within a genre, due to the differing sonic signatures of artists, but the basic rules of the musicological content for that particular genre must be met for it to be classified so.

With this as a new definition structure, it is clear to me that my previous work (Daly, 2015) was indeed a mixture of styles rather than a mixture of genres. With this in mind and knowledge of other fusion genres that exist such as bhangra (Grove, 2013), I ask how can a composer explore what it means to write a

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successful fusion within boundaries defined by genre, and what factors would need to be present for it to be considered successful within the genres explored?

A brief review of the current literary climate of these genres shows us that there are accepted features that help to point towards a definition of these parent genres, but there is little explicitly defining them. With this in mind the first step would be to attempt to categorically define them for the sake of the rest of the project as fusion based on hearsay carries a smaller weight.

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2. Methodology

The outcome of the project is ultimately to create style and genre fusion pieces of varying balance between two parent genres. My compositional approach will need to be accurate in terms of the elements at the core of each composition and cannot be simply based on previous experience of the genres. Given the implications of genre as discussed above, I believe it best to undertake comprehensive background research into the stylistic and social elements of each of the parent genres before beginning fusion composition. This ensures a level of validity in those compositions when taking the ratified elements forward.

The main elements to achieve before beginning the attempted style and genre fusion is explicitly defining the parent genres. I will do this by effectively ‘averaging’ many of the current literary texts as well as some less formal sources. Codifying tropes that are regularly mentioned into a chart will help to illustrate what are considered features of the parent genres. The method will be similar to that of grounded theory (Gibbs, 2010), which utilises a system of theory construction through analysis of qualitative data. Whilst usually most applicable to social sciences, grounded theory is described as the process of simultaneously collecting and systematically analysing qualitative data and developing inductive categories for the data (Flick, 2014). These categories illustrate similarities between all texts and media relevant to the subject matter and help to indicate the make-up of the topic depicted by the data. This method would mean analysis of texts and media relevant to the data would result in regular tropes, and therefore defining factors of the parent genre in question. There is no upper limit to how many texts pertaining to the subject matter should be included in a grounded theory study and it is advised that data collection only stop when theoretical saturation is achieved (Charmaz, 2000).

Due to the exhaustive nature of grounded theory, it is unnecessarily prolonged for this MA project. Therefore, a content analysis based system will be used. One where a given text or piece of media will be coded, and the relevant data pertaining to the genre it is discussing extracted and listed. The next step will be to compile the regularly appearing tropes into a chart and show into which section of Fabbri’s framework each part fits. This will allow us to know which elements at minimum will be required for fusion composition. I will also be producing word frequency charts of the relevant sources, which shall be illustrated as word clouds of the parent genres.

To check the validity of the resulting tropes list, music accepted to be from the parent genre’s will be musicologically analysed to see if they do in fact conform to at least the most regularly appearing features. Alongside this, I will also be composing one or two pieces that are typical of the parent genre’s as experiments. These pieces will be designed to find the issues of composing in these genres as a single composer/producer and then what to watch out for when mixing genre after retrospective analysis.

After these traits have been identified, the process of style and genre fusion begins via composition utilising select facets from each of the parent genres. The idea will be to maintain the core values presented by the results of the content analysis of the parent genre literature for both parents. The elements intrinsic

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to the fusion compositions will be selected evenly from both parents as not to create an overlap and contradiction. For example drum ‘n’ bass’s fast stipulation may contradict with the tempo stipulation of a typical alternative rock song and therefore, one facet must be disregarded for the initial fusion composition. Anything left out by the first fusion composition will be covered by the second and then finally a third piece will be written attempting to cover all parts of both parent genres. Finally, a commentary on compositional process will be drawn up with a view to retrospectively analyse the success of each piece in upholding the values of both parent genres, as outlined by Fabbri’s framework.

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3. Drum ‘n’ Bass

A review of the literary climate regarding the genres indicates there are indeed discreet facets in the description of drum ‘n’ bass. A few key sources include the Pump Up The Volume documentary series (alphaville, 2011), Rick Snowman’s Dance Music Manual (2008), Morgan Gerard’s Reaching Out To The Core (2000) and Peter Shapiro’s Drum ‘n’ Bass: The Rough Guide (1999). As the particulars I will be discussing are indeed an average of multiple sources, when citing these aspects I will include a single reference from the list of texts per value.

3.1 Features

Drum ‘n’ bass was born in the in , the drug fuelled brainchild of artist (alphaville, 2001). ’s (DJ) had begun to pitch up hardcore and records on their decks to make them faster and take on a new darker persona. Accompanying sub-bass lines were synthesized and the use of chopped up gave birth to tracks like (Goldie, 1995) taking the genre into a realm of sophistication and popularity not seen before. Goldie’s debut album Timeless was the first drum ‘n’ bass entity to break out from the underground clubs and into the charts, a place where the genre has frequented ever since. Naturally the genre has diversified over time but it has indeed stuck to its roots in the club and rave scene. It is typically performed by a DJ who is almost always accompanied by an MC () when performing live (Gerard, 2000). When composed, drum ‘n’ bass can be both a solo and a collaborative effort as it is entirely possible to produce all style aspects of drum ‘n’ bass alone with a DAW, drum machines, MPC’s and so forth.

Musicological features include a regular 4/4 and a fast tempo typically in the region 160- 180BPM (Gerard, 2000). The use of sampled breakbeats and one shot samples often gives pieces complex (Gilman, 1999-2002). This is down to the editing of the drums on machines such as the MPC60 and all subsequent releases of it, and more recently, software such as Ableton Live. Drum breaks that frequent the genre are notably the ‘’ (Procter, 2006), ‘ break’, ‘’ and ‘ (about it)’ breaks although many more are used (www.junglebreaks.com, 2005).

The bass aspect of drum ‘n’ bass is generally heavy sub bass borrowed from Jamaican dub (Grove, 2014) and its content is synthesised or sampled to provide the low frequencies. As the genre grew, this facet most often took the form of a ‘reese’ bass, first characterised by ’s track Just Want Another Chance (1988) (his artist name was Reese). The characteristics of the bass were adopted by the genre and grew as time progressed. Reese basses are now a prominent characteristic in modern drum ‘n’ bass and have a wider timbral range than that of the point of their introduction, ushering in a new more aggressive sound, an example of which can be heard in Skynet’s One Speed (2015).

One final characteristic that the sources all agree on is that of the form of drum ‘n’ bass tracks. Sections that are generally included are referred to as ‘the introduction/buildup’, ‘the drop’ and ‘the breakdown’. These sections can be repeated multiple times in multiple variations but generally drops are broken up by

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breakdowns. The drop (UKF, 2016) (section of hard track) is characterised by all of the musicological features as discussed above, with the introduction and breakdown material serving as contrast.

The rave culture that embodies drum ‘n’ bass demonstrates traits that fit into Fabbri’s framework on the non-musicological scale. This includes aspects such as the ‘genuineness’ of a DJ playing to a crowd, along with the characteristics of their reaction and behaviour. It also includes elements such as whether members of the crowd have partaken in substance abuse and the like, and other drum ‘n’ bass’ social aspects outside of the club such as the UKF (2009). These are all relevant aspects that are difficult to replicate in a composition without placing them within the environment first hand.

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3.2 Word Cloud

As additional materials to the codifying of these various texts, I thought it interesting to perform word frequency analysis on the first few search results for each of the parent genres. Such results might help to give an insight into how the genre is received in the popular domain. Naturally articles arising included the relevant Wikipedia pages and in the case of drum ‘n’ bass multiple radio and download sites for relevant music. While indicative of a strong online presence for the music, it is unhelpful in showing any kind of word correlation with the genre and thus the Wikipedia pages and the literary texts were used to create the word cloud for drum ‘n’ bass; which can be seen below in figure 1.

Figure 1: Drum 'n' Bass word cloud

The larger a word appears, the more often it has come up in the source materials. The software used to create these word clouds also automatically deletes common words such as ‘and’ from the cloud. That being said there are obviously some non helpful phrases and words that occur from web pages, such as Validhtml that can be seen above record in the cloud. The cloud shows us the real prevalence of the DJ and MC within the articles and the concept of the track more so than the song is brought to the fore. The

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ideas of style, scenes and dance are prevalent with sampling and production also in the mix. It also helps to illustrate some of the influences of drum ‘n’ bass such as house, , dub, London and the UK. These clouds are not designed to give conclusive evidence as to the exact make up of a parent genre, but rather are just an interesting way to demonstrate which are the regular talking points in articles pertinent to the genre. This will of course change drastically as more articles are added, for example two very large documents on how to produce drum ‘n’ bass reside within this cloud and thus could be attributed to the size of the word produce.

3.3 Analysis of Timeless and Feel the Love

When addressing this genre, examining one older and one more modern piece against the accepted values of drum ‘n’ bass allows us to see how far it has changed over time. It secondly allows me to validate my own two composition experiments within the genre. A brief musicological analysis of the aforementioned Inner City Life (Goldie, 1995) and a more modern and commercial example in that of ’s Feel The Love (Rudimental, 2012) shows that the genre has definitely evolved as it moved through the ages, and from underground to more commercial standpoint. This is reflected in the structures of the pieces, with Feel The Love employing a shorter form of (introduction, build-up, drop, breakdown and short build up, drop 2, coda) that is over in less than four minutes, similar to most modern chart music. In comparison, Inner City Life which is a segment of a much larger singular piece with multiple sections is a very long piece. This time difference reflects the different social aspects of drum ‘n’ bass culture at different points in time, as the earlier is a small segment of the larger work Timeless, which likely would have been played in its twenty two minute entirety in the underground clubs and pirate radio of the 1990s compared to that of the commercial four minute pop song variant of the latter more modern MTV generation. Both are within the prescribed drum ‘n’ bass tempo range with Inner City Life’s at 155BPM when accounting for the potential of pitching up of records and Feel The Love’s at 180BPM. Instrumentation also varies between the tracks, with Inner City Life largely consisting of synthesized pads, leads and , chopped drum breaks and vocal material. Feel The Love employs all of these, plus a wider selection of live instruments including trumpet and keyboards, partly due to the larger line up of the band (Lambert, 2014). Another key difference is the treatment of the bass material; Goldie’s work consists largely of staccato notes with a long release and a relatively clean tone, compared to that of the warmer, grittier, more constant reese bass and accenting lines of Rudimental’s bass work. The drum and percussive material varies also, with Inner City Life’s rhythmic material seeming to all come from a single break with multiple layering and transformative techniques applied, whereas Feel The Love feels more static with less complex cross rhythms, despite the final swung section of harder track.

3.4 Blue in Grey and Electric Priest

Having studied the stylistic elements of drum ‘n’ bass, I have written two experimental pieces for this part of the project, one in a more modern style and the other a take on the darker underground sound with a modern twist. The reasoning for this is to familiarise myself with the elements that will become necessary later on in the project for fusion to occur. The first experiment entitled Blue in Grey is an attempt to adopt

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a more recent sound world within the drum ‘n’ bass genre (jump up drum ‘n’ bass) with aggressive bass sounds in the harder sections of track and a focus on getting people to dance. The piece is divided into 8 Sections, including the repeated and variation sections. The introduction is bars 1-56, incorporating a small build up between bars 49-56 to the drop into the first hard section of track at bar 57. The material here is sparse but rhythmic after 8 bars, as not to present all the material straight away but allow a DJ to beat synchronise from the previous track into it. This section has a much cleaner than the first drop, utilising lush pads and reverberant effects to create an airy texture, with the intention of making the drop more impactful on its arrival in bar 57. For the same reason, percussive elements here have been somewhat subdued.

It is worth noting that when composing this experiment piece, I took it upon myself to learn the DAW Ableton Live, one I was unfamiliar with beforehand but learnt to appreciate the cell triggering behaviour when using in session view mode. This enabled me to trigger samples on the fly, similar to an MPC workflow from the earlier days of drum ‘n’ bass, and is actually the method I used to derive some of the bass material for this track. Consisting of four cells of pre organised bass material, cells were triggered at random during a section of the drop to create a completely new line. The first drop itself runs from bars 57-104 and serves as the main dancing material, consisting of hard timbre wavetable bass with sub bass from a MiniMoog emulation accompanying it. A highly compressed drum loop with variations and high energy vocal chops and harmonies are present to accompany and provide depth. Once underway, I did not want the track to lose its momentum, so transitioning between the first two hard sections of track was achieved by low-pass filtering the drums much like a DJ might do live. This enabled the pulse to remain throughout the interconnecting section without having to break the track down fully to rebuild it from bars 105-120.

The second section of hard track features entirely new material which in retrospect I feel clutters the track somewhat. The saturation of many ideas within the piece does make the track feel crammed and underdeveloped in the mid section. Further development of these ideas or indeed removal and expansion on other ideas within the piece may have been more beneficial. Another potential improvement for this track would have been more variation within the drop’s drum tracks. They are slightly over-compressed and largely constructed through repetition and variances of loops but perhaps not widely enough. Another issue that might possibly arise is that the breakdown itself takes the track too low and it could be argued that it loses too much momentum for a club environment.

Electric Priest aims to explore a darker tone with a more underground feel. The piece is constructed in a similar form to Blue in Grey with a sparse but pulsed introduction. It features multiple sections of hard track as well but does include key differences in sound design and use of low frequencies. The kick drum features a long release of sub frequencies tuned down to the tonic F# to anchor the material with accompanying bass line. The bass line’s material in question is not to be considered a reese bass but more akin to the earlier days of drum ‘n’ bass with smoother bass tones and more complex lines than just full measure long notes. The line is doubled by a variety of wavetable synth variations that morph throughout to give it a more aggressive feel. The drum part was constructed from a single electronic drum loop and its

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variation is far superior to the previous experiment. This is largely down to the multiple chops and changes as well as the use of studio effects such as delay to provide variety and complexity to the drum part, but in hindsight, it may have benefitted more from some creative filtering. Another potential issue in is the slightly abrupt ending. The lack of percussive elements at means it would be harder for a DJ to mix into another song fluently without losing momentum.

Retrospective analysis of both of drum ‘n’ bass experiments shows that the focus is indeed geared towards the production standard of the pieces and the sound design of the elements within them. Less important seems to be the complexity of melody and harmony and a focus on overall energy is brought to the front. The instrumentation is entirely electronic, with synthetic sound design and sampling as the main carrier of content, with drum elements not necessarily playable by a live drummer (without sample triggering and assistance).

An issue of contention I discovered in my composition experiments in this genre were maintaining clarity of mix with so much sub and bass information. Ensuring bass information for the sub and kick elements did not compete too much whilst remaining punchy and consistent was paramount. Parallel drum compression combined with multiband sidechain compression to duck the bass information in the kick region whenever triggered helped the elements to combine. These features, as well as those discussed in the analysis of the existing tracks and literature, will be taken forward into the fusion composition stage.

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4. Alternative Rock

4.1 Features

Rock music is an umbrella term given to the genre and subgenres that emerged from rock ‘n’ roll as seclusion from the premise of . Keightley (2001) suggests that rock is an ‘evocative and frustratingly vague’ term and is down to the context of the act in the timeframe that it is relevant. She claims that while there are certain musical tropes that rock is built upon, rock music is more exclusively to do with the rejection of aspects of mass distributed music, claiming it too safe for the sake of sales back in the sixties. This is of course somewhat ironic due to the popularity that rock music acclaimed through the coming ages via bands such as The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Who and many more. This movement set the foundations for classic rock as we know it today, with music generally centred on the electric (likely featuring distortion) and a vocalist at the forefront of a band. The setup typically including bass guitar, drums and sometimes can include an expanded instrumentation of piano, keyboards/synthesisers and a wider array of orchestral and jazz instruments. Lyrical subject matter can vary greatly from songs about love and emotion to commentaries on observed social, political and personal matters. Song structure can also vary greatly but generally features musical or lyrical refrain. Yvetta Kajanová (Kajanová, 2014) details different rhythmic figures within the many subgenres of rock music throughout its history and how different bands had varying musical styles that could be grouped into them.

When starting this project I was under the impression that alternative rock was simply any rock music that did not fit into the classic rock guise. However, after researching the matter a better definition would be that alternative rock is rock music that has emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s (di Perna, 1995), which may or may not include the musical facets of classic rock. The independence of artists meant that they would likely work unrestrained in terms of musical style, not having to answer to corporations regarding their music and popularity. The review of literature regarding alternative rock was certainly more difficult due to the wider range of music under the genre’s umbrella. Some indicative texts include Allan F. Moore’s Rock: The Primary Text (2001), Steve Taylor’s The A to X of Alternative Music (2004), Dave Thompson’s Alternative Rock (2000) and the aforementioned Yvetta Kajanova’s On the History of Rock Music (2014). Typical stylistic features of the genre include: a focus on distorted electric ; band line up of drums, bass, guitar, vocals with some keyboards; a higher degree of focus on musicianship rather than production clarity and lyrics on social and personal issues. Example in this genre include American Idiot (Green Day, 2007), Hot Fuss (The Killers, 2004), Only by the Night (Kings of Leon, 2008), (Muse, 2001), Nevermind (Nirvana, 1991) and OK Computer (Radiohead, 1997). Although under the same banner, stylistically they can be quite diverse. With this in mind I chose to base stylistic features within my study on the sonic style of the band Muse, on the understanding that it is a good representation of UK alternative rock, if by no means exhaustive.

Muse’s style does change slightly with each subsequent album release adopting a new concept that is reflected musically. The established traits of Muse’s early work include aggressive yet melancholic musical style as seen in Sunburn (1999, Track 1), with plenty of vocal falsetto demonstrated in (2001,

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Track 5), high speed tremolo and arpeggio guitar/keyboard in (2001, Track 1) and Thoughts of a Dying Athiest (2003, Track 13), distortion on bass guitar in Time is Running Out and Hysteria (2003, Tracks 3 and 8), use of the guitar riff as the musical staple of a song as seen in Plug In Baby, Citizen Erased (2001, Tracks 5 and 6) and Stockholm Syndrome (2003, Track 5) a feature no doubt influenced by Bellamy’s guitar heroes such as Hendrix (www.ultimateguitar.com, 2003). The same article also mentions Muse’s occasional use of classical and romantic harmony as seen in Butterflies and Hurricanes (2003 Track 10) and Space Dementia (2001, Track 3) as influence taken from their piano integration and influence in some of the tracks. Muse have also dipped into the idea of using non-western tonality, as can be heard in the main string and piano melody in (2009, Track 4). Their lyrical subject varies greatly but mostly entails emotive subjects such as love, politics and oppression. Though featured in some earlier albums in tracks such as Butterflies and Hurricanes (2003, Track 10), their later work takes on a wider range of influences, and expanded instrumentation such as the full orchestration of segments of the album (2012) and the exogenesis symphony as part of The Resistance (2009, Tracks 9-11). Synth and pop influences can also clearly be heard on Black Holes and Revelations (2006), an extension of the already implemented technique of analogue and digital manipulation of guitars, bass and keys earlier in their career.

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4.2 Word Cloud

The word cloud for alternative rock has the same issue of the general search results for the genre consisting of Wikipedia results and then a plethora of radio, download and chart results. Consequently, the same logic has been applied of using the articles and literary texts to produce figure 2 below.

Figure 2: Alternative Rock and Muse style word cloud

Various sub genres of rock music are prevalent here; this is most likely down to Yvetta Kajanová’s (Kajanová, 2014) extensive work on the rhythms of all rock subgenres, hence metal, punk and sure enough, alternative can clearly be seen. Key instruments such as the guitar and bass are clearly visible but interestingly enough there is little mention of vocal or vocalist. The idea of the LP is brought to the fore in contrast to drum ‘n’ bass’ prevalence of the track. Some of alternative rock/Muse style’s influences can be seen here in the form of the prevalent jazz and art.

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4.3 Analysis of Stockholm Syndrome

It is also necessary to analyse a relevant track for this genre. I have chosen Stockholm Syndrome from Muse’s album Absolution (2003, Track 5) as a good cross representation of the artist in terms of time and sonic signature. Its timing and structure is synonymous with a good amount of rock music with the track being shorter than five minutes and featuring an introduction, verse 1, chorus 1, verse 2, chorus 2, instrumental, chorus 3 and coda with small interconnecting sections. The instrumentation is typical, featuring distorted electric guitar as the main riff instrument and lead in the introductory and re-linking sections, electric bass guitar featuring rapid notes throughout as well as impactful stabs in the introduction, a synth/arpeggiated line in the chorus, drums with driving rhythms in the instrumental sections and toms heavy playing in the verses. The vocal material features extensive falsetto (a key facet in ’s singing style) in the chorus’s and vocal distortion in certain sections such as the end of chorus’s for emphasis. Lyrical subject does fit into the alternative guise of containing ambiguous lyrics that could relate to a number of matters but verge on subjects of attachment and dysfunctional relationships, not necessarily between two individuals but alludes to the connection between citizens and the controlling powers of a country.

The harmonic content steers away from a conventional natural minor/aeolian mode in favour of chromatic ascending and descending harmony in the verses and post-chorus sections, with varying degrees of harmonic suspension between the bass and guitars. The use of relatively straight rhythms in melodic and harmonic parts is prevalent albeit rapid. The overall timbre of the track is one of a harder sound, utilising driven tones, distortion and the lower notes of a non-standard tuning on the guitars and bass (Drop-D). Another key feature in the production is the differentiation in width of the stereo image between the verses and the link into the chorus. The wide guitars have a certain digital distortion tone not heard before in the track that elaborates the change in section. Another noticeable production technique is the use of layering during the instrumental where the main guitar riff is doubled by a flanger/phased version in the right channel.

4.4 Pray Charge Your Glasses

With these elements in mind and a couple of Muse’s tracks as reference points; Psycho (2015, Track 1) and Uprising (2009, Track 2), I wrote and recorded my piece Pray Charge Your Glasses. The piece utilises features previously discussed such as the material being riff based in the instrumental sections with the exception of the main instrumental section towards the end, which utilises the harmonic suspension technique between instruments as discussed above. The piece was written with the intention of being easily translatable to a live environment and thus all instrument and vocal lines are idiomatic and playable by a typical rock band line-up, without additional instrumentalists or sample triggers. The form of the piece is in keeping with the standard format of the genre, featuring an introduction, verses, choruses, refrains and instrumental sections. The instrumental section features falsetto improvisation akin to Matt Bellamy’s singing style. Lyrics are of a socio-political nature, discussing the attitudes of corrupt authority and well in line with the genres topics of discussion.

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Issues of contention I discovered in my composition experiment in this genre were that songs within the genre can often be written by more than a single individual, and thus constructing idiomatic lines for all instruments alone was arduous at times for myself. Drums fell into this category as all of the drum parts for this portfolio were programmed and not recorded straight from a player with a kit. Due to the genre having a large live heritage, beat construction had to adhere to what would be physically possible by a player and thus is somewhat restrictive. This is something that is taken into consideration when composing fusion pieces, but due to the very different nature of the rhythmic material, a hybrid method needed to be implemented.

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5. Fusion Compositions

Figure 3: Fusion word cloud

Figure 3 above is the fusion word cloud that combines the previous two together. The larger ‘rock’ compared to drum or bass is down to the texts material and does not necessarily mean it is required to be more prevalent in a fusion for it to be a success or balanced. Other artists have indeed written material in the genre crossover area of rock and drum ‘n’ bass before. Key artists are Pendulum, Chase & Status and and albums to note are (Pendulum, 2005), In Silico (Pendulum, 2008), Immersion (Pendulum, 2010), No More (Chase and Status, 2011) and Invaders Must Die (The Prodigy, 2009). Tracks from these albums indeed straddle the stylistic elements of both rock music and drum ‘n’ bass but it is unlikely they will have attempted this style and genre fusion in the systematic way that this study has. Below is a table of what this study understands to be the general make-up of the parent genres stylistic features and how Fabbri’s framework applies, as compiled from various sources during the project. Also listed are the first two fusion pieces composed for this portfolio (Thistles and Minotaur) and what elements were used in each one in an attempt to explore how far apart two fusions of the same set of

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genres could sound. A third and final fusion entitled Last Exchange attempts to use all of the elements listed below in figure 4.

5.1 Table of Elements Musicological: Formal and Technical (F&T) and Semiotic (S) Drum ‘n’ bass Alternative Rock (Muse style) Use of drum breaks and the Thistles/Minotaur Use of vocal effects, both Thistles manipulation of them via F&T performative and studio F&T + S slicing and filtering etc. (falsetto, distortion etc.) 160-180BPM common time X No distinct tempo stipulation x signature F&T Complex syncopation Thistles/Minotaur Band setup of vocals, guitars, Thistles F&T bass, keys and drums F&T (performable by a group live) Heavy sub bass/reese bass Thistles/Minotaur Electric guitar and bass guitar Thistles/Minotaur material F&T distortion F&T Moderately aggressive sound Minotaur Aggressive/melancholic sound Thistles S S Predominant use of Thistles/Minotaur Guitar riff as recurring theme Thistles synthesis and sampled F&T and staple for material in some F&T material ( culture), tracks electronic instrumentation Tracks need to lend Thistles/Minotaur Occasional use of classical, Minotaur themselves to be DJ-able, F&T romantic and non western F&T + S but not necessarily harmony influences performable by a band setup Space in tracks for MC to Thistles/Minotaur Lyrical subject of Thistles perform on top of (other F&T + S love/politics/social issues S vocal content, if present, is not constant) Format of track includes Thistles/Minotaur Generally but not exclusively Thistles introduction + buildup F&T verse-chorus format F&T elements, a ‘drop’ and a breakdown about halfway to two thirds in Some songs include an Minotaur expanded instrumentation of F&T + S electronic, orchestral and world instruments Extended techniques and digital Minotaur manipulation of the electric F&T guitar Instrumental sections with a solo Thistles/Minotaur instrument at the fore F&T Non Musicological: Social and Ideological, Behavioral and Economic and Juridical Drum ‘n’ bass Alternative Rock Rave culture x Non mainstream culture x Higher degree of emphasis Minotaur Higher degree of emphasis on Thistles raw energy of tracks musicianship Figure 4: Table of elements necessary for fusion compositions

In terms of production all of the fusion pieces have had to straddle a technological line between two different sound worlds, so carefully matching mix elements has been an interesting task. The core values of both genres production styles provide a lot of room for overlap and synergy, but they do bring a few elements of contention. The foremost of these is drum production as both parents stipulate different approaches to percussive elements. While it is possible for a live drummer to perform complex breakbeats

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alone, the multi percussive layer nature of drum ‘n’ bass brings a new state of difficulty for a single drummer within a rock band line up to do without the use of sample triggers. Another point of contention is structure. Whilst there are similarities between the conventional structures of both parents, they often serve different functions. For example the drop and the chorus are the respective high points of the track or song, which should have the largest payoff for the listener, but are handled in very different ways. Thus, when composing these fusions, somewhat hybrid structures have appeared in an attempt to withhold the integrity of the parent genres. However, it is ultimately a compromise. Both genres also stipulate a different attitude to production with drum ‘n’ bass characterised by a more synthetic sound, whereas alternative rock stipulates a somewhat more organic texture. Combining these elements in a meaningful way that is faithful to both is one of the objectives of these fusions.

As this study understands, there are less elements that make up the style elements of drum ‘n’ bass, hence they feature in their entirety throughout all fusion compositions where there isn’t an element from alternative rock that directly contests it. Utilising the table above, the compositional process aims to utilise all stylistic elements at the core of the parent genres to create its new sonic identity and then attempt to instil the necessary attitudes of the music for it to fit within the social boundaries of the parent genres. It therefore indicates that this study will only be able to perform style fusion, as it lacks the detailed social research necessary for genre fusion. Potential ways to conduct this will be discussed later.

5.2 Thistles

The first fusion piece is entitled Thistles and was inspired predominantly by Pendulum’s Crush (2010, Track 5). This 175BPM track follows a structure closer to a rock song with an introduction, refrain, ‘verse’, bridge, refrain, ‘verse’, bridge/breakdown, instrumental, refrain, ‘verse’ coda. The term verse is used loosely here, as the section is instrumental featuring some of the heaviest of the piece, utilising power chords and an aggressive reese bass following the ostinato passage, but it is envisaged to be where a MC would take control. The second bridge also breaks down the track, akin to a drum ‘n’ bass structure, but the track is very quick to recover into its instrumental. I made the choice to do this in part down to the shift in focus towards the performative end of the spectrum that this piece has, with its lead vocal and guitar solo taking the foreground in sections of the song. This piece does adopt a more band friendly live ethos, with all layers easily playable by a typical band line up, with the possible addition of a few sample triggers. However, it is not so far down the rock end of the spectrum that it would be deemed inappropriate to be played by a solo DJ. Thistles’ syncopated facet comes from the interplay between an acoustic live sounding kit and electronic percussion layers interspersed within it. This was a consideration so that a drummer might be able to perform all percussion parts necessary, by playing the main drum line and triggering these synchronised percussion layers via drum pad or similar. The bass also work in layers, with a bass guitar synonymously being used with analogue and digital synth layers to create a stacked bass tone. My choice to use the vocoder as the main carrier of vocal content is a personal stylistic one as it has been a feature of my compositional line up in the past (Daly, 2015). It is also justified as it does indeed fit into the category of ‘use of vocal effects, both performative and studio’. I wanted the overall sound of this piece to sit in the melancholic/aggressive category of Muse’s style rather than the straight aggressive nature

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of drum ‘n’ bass. This allowed for an easier emotive connection for myself to be able to write lyrics for the song, which are of a solemn nature.

In terms of this piece being a balanced fusion between the musicological rules of both parent genres, I feel it is indeed a fusion but urges on the side of alternative rock. This is perhaps because I began composition of this piece with the guitar and vocal parts, strong harmonic identifiers, rather than the drums and bass parts. Alternatively it may be because of the hybrid structure it possesses, which takes a larger influence of alternative rock style. Another reason is perhaps that the stylistic elements not included from alternative rock would have given better balance to the piece.

5.3 Minotaur

With this in mind, I began work on Minotaur. As prescribed by my own rules for this portfolio, this piece contains the elements not included in Thistles as core parts of its identity but did not necessarily mean that elements within Thistles could not be used. Also, as a contrast to Thistles, Minotaur would require far more adaptation of its elements to be performed by a band live due to the many synth and sample layers it possesses. The drums are entirely electronic and could potentially be played by a drummer if using an electronic or sample trigger kit, be able to switch out samples on the fly and maintain the fast tempo of 180BPM and its rhythmic complexity for its 6 and a half minute runtime. Bass material is largely synthetic and would require to be played by , but it does also feature a couple of bass guitar distortion sections of staccato hits. The structure, whilst still a hybrid, is more similar to drum ‘n’ bass in its features of continuous momentum much like Slam (Pendulum, 2005, Track 2), only broken once by a synth solo and then later for a longer breakdown nearer the end of the piece. I understand the format of the piece to be; intro, A, B, C, synth solo, A, B, C, guitar solo, breakdown, build up, A, A and coda, where A, B and C are all hard sections of track with differing material. The focus is certainly more on energy with this piece than the emotional conveyance of the previous and utilises both analogue and digital distortions on its synth and bass lines to provide a stylistically rock sound, despite the material being harder edged. The piece adopts Muse’s stylistic element of non western harmony by utilising an Arabic influenced scale in the synth solo, an element that is further backed up by the heavily modulated sitar like timbre sound modified from the guitar during the introduction, further emanating the occasional non western influence in this piece. Originally, the piece had a larger orchestrated introduction that run for approximately a minute consisting of a string orchestra with a cello lead and Arabic influenced vocals, but it was removed as the consensus was it applied unnecessary baggage to the piece and the track would be more focused without it. This piece therefore does not feature any vocals at all and relies on its energy and the space available for an MC to provide its intensity.

The piece was an attempt to move back towards the centre after straying stylistically too far towards alternative rock in Thistles. I believe it is also a successful fusion but instead has the opposite problem of being skewed towards drum ‘n’ bass. I certainly focused on energy and rhythmic drive ahead of melodic content and thus its lack of refraining melodic content causes it to lose some of its alternative rock style. Also, the piece seems it would be more likely played by a DJ to a club, than a band to a stadium, despite its

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performative solo sections. The piece might have also benefitted from more filtering of harmonic content and the drums before its final drop as, while impactful, it could have been larger. This piece also negates the argument that different stylistic elements being used than those which are utilised in Thistles, would create a more balanced fusion due.

5.4 Last Exchange

The final fusion piece Last Exchange attempts to utilise all style elements from both parent genres. I used yet again a couple of Pendulum tracks as reference and influence for specific aspects or sections of the piece, namely The Other Side (2008, Track 6) for its introduction drum idea and breakdown, and The Tempest (2008, Track 10) for its coda ideas. The 174BPM piece attempts to strike the balance between energy and performativity by utilising extended high-energy guitar and synth riff sections with complimentary drums and bass heavy content. The structure is as follows; introduction, riff, verse, chorus, riff, verse 2, chorus 2, instrumental, breakdown, bass riff, soft verse, build and coda. This structure is once again a hybrid and does not feature a distinct drop until its coda. It instead opts to utilise a rock structure for the first half of the track. Drum programming was far less considerate of live drummer performance in this piece, with drum loops being cut up and then stitched together in new ways to create the frantic beat. Bass material is entirely synthetic with the exception of the bass guitar instrumental in the breakdown. The main riff material is created through extensive layering of guitars and synths moving in melodic unison, similar to the chorus, which moves in harmonic unison across all of the elements. The vocal content keeps melodic interest during the piece and the lyrics discuss relevant alternative rock themes of anger and regret. As for live performance of this piece, both scenarios have complications. A DJ and MC would certainly suit the majority of the track, however the performance aspects of the guitar, vocals and bass solo would feel out of context. The breakdown drops very low and loses too much momentum for a drum ‘n’ bass track, yet seems fitting in context for an alternative rock track. Similarly, those previously discussed performative aspects of the vocals and guitars feel they should exist with an on stage presence, even if the rhythm section of drums and bass did not.

The piece regretfully does not utilise one of the alternative rock stylistic elements fully, which is ‘Occasional use of classical, romantic and non western harmony influences’. It is arguable that the brief piano sections include this but it is nonetheless not a central part of the piece. Despite this, Last Exchange is a more balanced fusion than the previous pieces. It has both a focus on energy and musicianship with neither overshadowing the other, despite not including all of the stylistic elements discussed fully. This is in part to its attitude towards upholding the values of the source material. It is somewhat more relaxed than the previous fusion and a liberal approach needs to be taken when the source material stipulates so many stylistic elements, particularly with the concept of live-ness. Rather than anticipating how the track might be performed live as part of the compositional process, removing this foresight actually allowed for a more natural, stylistically mixed compositional method. Last Exchange’s social context and how it might be performed could be worked out later.

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6. Discussion

As previously mentioned, these fusion pieces are in fact style fusions, not genre fusions. The mix of elements in their make up consists entirely of musicological elements and even though some sociological elements can be implied by these tracks, they cannot be fully realised without being placed in the necessary context and testing effectiveness. Conclusively, the formal, technical and semiotic rules of the parent genres are the only basis for which a composer can attempt to perform fusion, unless tested in social environments and accepted by the majority to contain elements that fit into Fabbri’s non-musicological rules as well.

The stylistic fusion of two genres in terms of production presented another challenge. Wide rock style guitars in the stereo mix take up the same frequencies and space of pads and effects from the production style. So much so that the layering of both of these elements in Last Exchange’s chorus provide a wall of sound effect, with little definition in specific guitar notes due to the over digitalisation of bringing acoustic sound sources into a very synthetic production, but does provide a large overall sonic impact. It is this melding of production elements that create an effect not usually heard directly in either parent genre alone (alternative rock would have greater note definition and drum ‘n’ bass rarely features guitars used in this manner) but is an interesting iteration of fusion material. The composition of three fusions also showed me that trying to be wholeheartedly and systematically faithful to the source stylistic facets of the parent genres inevitably causes one of the parent genres to be more dominant within the fusion composition. This would be particularly relevant if the two genres in question were less compatible than the two discussed in this thesis. It was only when a more liberal approach was taken in Last Exchange that something unique was created without one parents sonic signature overpowering the other. However, this is an opinion and for a more concrete answer on where the fusion stands stylistically, social feedback is necessary.

I was able to play the fusion tracks to a small crowd on a single occasion. The individuals identified with the electronic dance music and rave cultures of drum ‘n’ bass, having been to events such as The Warehouse Project (Pitchfork, 2012) in the past. I observed the situation and can ethnographically state that Thistles received a much lower energy reaction than that of Minotaur and Last Exchange, with Minotaur being the strongest. This is in keeping with my own observations of the fusion compositions, as the more towards the drum ‘n’ bass stylistic end of the spectrum the tracks were (Minotaur > Last Exchange > Thistles) the larger the reaction from individuals associated with that culture. Perhaps if these tracks were shown to individuals who are part of a rock culture the result would be the opposite. In any instance, whilst this isolated event does show a correlation between the popularity of the track with an audience who’s culture is more in line with the stylistic elements of the track, it is only a single presentation of the material and a much larger average would be needed for conclusive results.

There is a correlation in the data of the fusion compositions and their makeup that is slightly unprecedented, in that Last Exchange is the only balanced fusion and also the only track that attempts to utilise all of the stylistic elements of both parent genres, whilst Thistles and Minotaur utilise all of drum ‘n’

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bass and only a section of alternative rock style each. Whilst it would be possible to draw a conclusion that balanced fusion cannot be attained unless all elements are used, more evidence is necessary. I also would be more inclined to believe this if Thistles were to not use every drum ‘n’ bass element and still have a similar result. However, the alternative rock stylistic elements were the facets that were split between the first two fusion tracks and yet, we end up with pieces either side of the centre of the aesthetic scale between drum ‘n’ bass and alternative rock.

Finally, while this study accepts that Muse’s style is indicative of the UK alternative rock style, they are indeed only one artist and a much larger and exhaustive cross section of artists would needed to be taken for a fully conclusive list of the elements that make it up. Grounded theory, in a much longer and thorough study of the parent genres would help to categorically define an entire genre more precisely for fusion composition to be acted upon and could be an area for further research.

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7. Conclusion

This thesis asked how effectively can a composer achieve style and genre fusion? The fusion compositions show that style fusion can be achieved effectively by a composer of adequate skill, provided they are familiar with compositional and production techniques applicable to both of the parent genres. This thesis also shows us that the more fusions a composer writes under the same parent genres style elements, the more balanced between those genres they become. More extensive research might involve a significantly larger amount of fusion compositions being written and analyses of those pieces performed until the ideal balance between the two is found.

Genre fusion is far more complex and this study is unable to determine its process. Does a new fusion genre occur when styled fusion composition takes on a social following and culture? Or can a new style of composition be cultivated by two cultures clashing and creating something new together? These are further research questions that could be looked into. The first of these could be investigated by taking style fusion compositions and ethnographically evaluating their performance in clubs and bars, with the appropriate audiences, to ascertain the social aspects of the music.

This thesis asked what the restrictions of the idea of style and genre fusion might be by examining if one genre will overpower the other in terms of its sonic signature and social ideals? This thesis concludes that when taking on the stylistic elements of both parent genres too rigidly, one genre will inevitably overpower the other despite successful fusion. This is evidenced by Thistles’ slightly rock aesthetic, Minotaur’s slightly drum ‘n’ bass aesthetic and Last Exchanges’ better balance of elements once a new attitude was taken. Style fusions aim to create something new and while the source material is necessary for inspiration, a systematic joining of elements from both parents inevitably means the sonic signature will align with one unless a perfect balance can be found. This is evidenced by Last Exchanges’ attitude towards instrumentation and structure. Whilst containing idiomatic lines for guitar and vocals, the drums for example are a highly frantic stitching together of samples with little regard for how a drummer might actually play it, yet the samples themselves are of a rock quality. This shows us an example of when two contrasting attitudes towards the same musical element occurs, namely drums for these two genres, a hybrid compromise must be made, otherwise the sonic quality of the track will slip towards the favoured parent genre in that particular element. The same applies for structure.

The final question this thesis asked is how far apart can two fusions by the same composer of the same two genres stylistically be from one another? Thistles and Minotaur show evidence that successful style fusions of the same parent genres can be apart on an aesthetic scale. There will come a point on either side of that scale where a track begins to sound only like one of the parent genres and it could be an interesting compositional investigation to see how far to one side of the scale a piece could be considered a fusion until it is no longer considered genuine. This could be done by experimenting and removing various style elements from one side the equation, as demonstrated by the table further up in this thesis, gradually until the aesthetic breaks down. It could also help to demonstrate the most integral elements to the parent genres and what elements it is possible to forego and still be considered genuine.

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Further research might include more precise parent genre fusions. This study suffers slightly from the parent genres being very broad, despite attempts to narrow down the stylistic elements and consequently the fusion compositions adopt some of this broadness. The style of a single band against nearly thirty years of a genres sonic evolution may have caused a lack of focus, and thus two parent genres with incredibly specific sonic and cultural identities might lend themselves to a project like this, for example a crossover between math rock and . Also, as this thesis is unable to answer the question, I believe investigation into the necessary factors for true balanced genre fusion would be fruitful to the academic community, not just stylised elements of two parents mixed together and composed. Awareness of social context for new and upcoming styles of music and how new cultures and subcultures may develop from current musical crossover acts will give us an interesting insight into the future of current genres and any potential fusion genres yet to be created.

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8. Lyrics

8.1 Pray Charge Your Glasses

Verse 1 Time to go, walk on to the outside It’s waiting for you, a revelation Take control, lie to all the rabble That’s what you do see? Masses beneath

Chorus Go! Forth! Pray charge your glasses and Stand! Forth! Toast all the one’s that you’ve Robbed! Oh! All on your way to the top

Go! Now! Seek your new revolution Now! Build up your walls all around Now! Look out and see what you’ve done Now! Making it so inanimate (1st and 3rd times, obedient 2nd time)

Verse 2 After all, your self-importance aids you In convincing them, you’re not ignoble Wild and cruel, sleepless malice to us If only you see, resulting villainy

Chorus Instrumental (Falcetto improvisation) Chorus

8.2 Thistles

Short Chorus I can’t do this all alone I need you step down off your throne

Pre-chorus I don’t understand, what are you waiting for? I know you…

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Chorus I can’t do this all alone I need you step down off your throne Rise up and seize my one last chance Don’t look back, don’t even take a glance

Pre-chorus Chorus

8.3 Last Exchange

Verse 1 Take a bow, forever long I wanna know where did I go wrong And why’d you have to be waiting on Some warrior to come along?

Chorus This is my last exchange with you This is my last exchange with you Break out and shape a world brand new Until we fall, and let it all go

Verse 2 Clear the crowd and come to see The brevity of what you mean to me And why’d you have to be waiting on Some warrior to come along?

Chorus

Chorus

Verse 1 (softer)

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10. Discography Chase and Status (2011) [Spotify] Goldie (1995) Timeless [Spotify] FFRR Records Gorillaz (2005) Demon Days [CD] Virgin Green Day (2007) American Idiot [CD] Reprise Kevin Saunderson (1988) Just Want Another Chance [Youtube] Incognito Records Kings of Leon (2008) Only by the Night [Spotify] RCA Muse (1999) Showbiz [Spotify] Naive Muse (2001) Origin of Symmetry [Spotify] Cutting edge Muse (2003) Absolution [Spotify] Warner Bros. Records Muse (2006) Black Holes and Revelations [Spotify] Warner Bros. Records Muse (2009) The Resistance [Spotify] Warner Bros. Records Muse (2012) The 2nd Law [Spotify] Warner Bros. Records Muse (2015) Drones [Spotify] Warner Bros. Records Nirvana (1991) Nevermind [CD] DGC Pendulum (2005) Hold Your Colour [Spotify] Pendulum (2008) In Silico [Spotify] Ear Storm Pendulum (2010) Immersion [Spotify] Radiohead (1997) OK Computer [CD] Parlophone Rudimental (2012) Feel the Love [Spotify] Asylum Skynet (2015) One Speed [Spotify] Invisible Recordings The Killers (2004) Hot Fuss [CD] Island Records The Prodigy (2009) Invaders Must Die [Spotify] Victor Talking Machine Company

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ii. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts, may be made only in accordance with the regulations of the University Library. Details of these regulations may be obtained from the Librarian. This page must form part of any such copies made.

iii. The ownership of any patents, designs, trade marks and any and all other intellectual property rights except for the Copyright (the “Intellectual Property Rights”) and any reproductions of copyright works, for example graphs and tables (“Reproductions”), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property Rights and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property Rights and/or Reproductions.

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